sussidio January 2020

   “The new man, recreated in Jesus”

From the WORD of GOD

3 You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death. 4 So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we too should begin living a new life. 5 If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his; 6 realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.
7 Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin.8 But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too.9 We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him anymore.10 For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God.11 In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.12 That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires;13 or give any parts of your bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness; 14 and then sin will no longer have any power over you – you are living not under law, but under grace.(Rm 6: 3-14)

From the DOCUMENTS of the CHURCH
We are Christians to the extent that we allow Jesus Christ to live in us. Where then do we begin to rekindle this awareness if not from the beginning, from the Sacrament which ignited Christian life within us? This is Baptism. The Greek word ‚to baptize‛ means ‚to immerse‛ (cf. ccc, 1214). For us Christians it must be noted that if the body is immersed in water, the soul is immersed in Christ in order to receive the forgiveness of sin and to shine with divine light. By virtue of the Holy Spirit, Baptism immerses us in the death and Resurrection of the Lord, drowning in the baptismal font the ‘old’ man, dominated by sin which separates him from God, and giving birth to the new man, recreated in Jesus. In Him all the children of Adam are called to new life. Therefore, Baptism is a rebirth. Indeed, the water of Baptism is not just any water, but the water upon which the Spirit, the ‚giver of life‛ is invoked. Thus Baptism is also called ‘regeneration’: we believe that God has saved us ‚in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit‛ (Tit 3:5). Baptism is therefore an effective sign of rebirth, in order to walk in the newness of life.
By immersing us in Christ, Baptism also makes us members of his Body, which is the Church, and sharers in her mission in the world (cf. ccc, 1213). We baptized are not isolated: we are members of the Body of Christ. The vitality which springs forth from the baptismal font is illustrated by these words of Jesus: ‚I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit‛ (Jn 15:5). A selfsame life, that of the Holy Spirit, flows from Christ to the baptized, uniting them in one Body (cf. 1 Cor 12:13), anointed by the holy unction and nourished at the Eucharistic table. Baptism allows Christ to live in us and allows us to live united with him, to cooperate in the Church, each according to his or her condition, for the transformation of the world. Received only once, the baptismal bath illuminates our whole life, guiding our steps all the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
(Pope Francis, General Audience, 11 April 2018, St. Peter’s Square)

From the WRITINGS of Blessed A. ROSMINI

Christ life is communicated to his fellow men through an ineffable contact established between his humanity and theirs by the matter of the sacraments. Christ’s sacred humanity exercises a mysterious but real action on the soul. Through baptism man is incorporated in Christ and so shares, at least initially, in Christ, the vision of God which Christ himself possesses. The examples used by Christ to illustrate this bond for his disciples show that the incorporation of man with the sacred humanity of Christ in baptism is a union in which one reality communicates life to another. Christ is the vine, and the disciples the branches; …Christ is the Head of the body, and his disciples the members…Christ goes on to describe himself as life; men without Christ are bereft of life. Unless they are one with him they cannot share in the communication of life which circulates through the body. This real, substantial union of men with Christ is an effect of baptism. St. John speaking of those born of God, says:” Whatever is born of God overcomes the world” (1John 5:4) The rebirth of man in baptism takes place through the infusion of faith , that is, by means of that light in which we begin to see God as worthy of faith, and learn to believe firmly in him with an act of will.
In baptism man is united to Christ by direct contact, and through Christ with God. Baptism, however, does not infuse in man only verbiform grace, that is, grace which enables us to know Christ, but also triniform grace because in Christ we know the Father, the source of Christ, and from Christ we receive the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father through the Son. In this way our mind is enlightened by a three-fold ray which draws us ever more closely to Christ. (Antropologia Soprannaturale, 3, 321)

LET US PRAY

I shall sing the faithful love of Yahweh for ever,
from age to age my lips shall declare your constancy,
for you have said:” love is built to last for ever”,
you have fixed your constancy firm in the heavens.
The heavens praise your wonders, Yahweh,
your constancy in the gathering of your faithful.
How blessed the nation that learns to acclaim you!
They will live, Yahweh, in the light of your presence. (Ps 89)

PASTORAL YEAR 2019 – 2020
ON-GOING FORMATION
INSTITUTE OF CHARITY
ROSMINIAN SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE

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